Many thanks to Victoria Eveleigh, who stepped in at very late notice to do this guest post. Enjoy!
“Joe really has things far too easy. He has good
parents and no money worries.”
This comment was made by
Claire who runs the Pony Mad Book Lovers website http://www.ponymadbooklovers.co.uk. She was talking about the first book in my latest
trilogy, which is about a boy called Joe who moves from Birmingham to a
smallholding in the countryside because his dad, who’s a teacher, gets a new
job. Joe hates the change to begin with, but then he digs up a horseshoe and
his life starts to take a different course.
It’s true his problems (a new
home that seems to be in the middle of nowhere, an annoying little sister and
being cut off from his friends, with no phone or internet connection) aren’t
monumental, but I felt they were realistic and that most teenagers faced with
such things would be grumpy.
Some readers agree. They say
moving house is a big deal, especially when you don’t want to, and Joe is
refreshingly believable compared with some of the impossibly nice protagonists
in children’s books.
A few say he’s a brat who
doesn’t know how lucky he is.
Interesting.
A quick glance at Facebook
this morning (okay, not that quick,
but it was research!) turned up various grumbles, from having to light the fire
because it was getting colder to the dog being sick on a new carpet. One friend
said she was dreading winter because she’d be back to the routine of looking
after her horse in the dark before and after work. Yes, in the big scheme of
things these people are lucky to have a fire, a new carpet and a dog to be sick
on it, a horse and a job, but we usually don’t see the bigger picture, do we?
Little problems get to us, even if we know they shouldn’t.
It’s incredibly tempting to
heap adversity onto the hero or heroine of a story. It guarantees instant
sympathy from the reader, which is always useful, but the bar of misfortune
seems to be getting higher and higher. Poverty, bullying and the death of at
least one parent seem to be the norm nowadays. I know there are children who experience
these things, and they should feature in stories, but there are others living
in all sorts of different circumstances. Shouldn’t they be represented too?
There’s been a lot of talk
about diversity in children’s literature recently (hurray for Malorie
Blackman). The focus seems to have been on ethnic diversity and the inclusion
of more characters with disabilities to reflect the society we live in. I agree
with this, of course. I also feel we should be careful to avoid classic stereotypes
that mirror our prejudices in different ways, like the poor-but-noble
protagonist, the rich bitch and the fat bully.
Life is filled with complex
characters from a variety of backgrounds who can’t be defined by how much money
they have or what they look like. People are full of surprises.
 |
| By Thelwell |
One day I’d like to be brave
enough to create a fat, rich, heroic protagonist with a large, happy family.
Well, publishers are always looking for originality, aren’t they?
